The Best Credit Cards to Unlock Free Travel With Points — BryGuides (2024)

I’ve taken over 20 flights in the past year and not paid in full with cash for a single one. This is power of credit card points and airline miles, a tool which, when leveraged correctly, can severely reduce or eliminate spend on flights, hotels, and more.

If you’re new to cards and points, this article will help you pick the right cards to maximize points and transfers to start flying “for free”. If you’re an average person has a credit card or two, and might know which categories they get the best points on, but this will help you expand and round out your wallet to optimize miles, perks to travel more, for less. Let’s go!

The Travel Trifecta

The Travel Trifecta are the 3 companies that are really leading the industry when it comes to travel rewards. If you’re just getting started, I’d pick a credit card from one of these companies, and if you want to really get serious in the points and miles game, I’d open one up from all three, over time to unlock the best transfer options.

Why prioritize the Travel Trifecta?

1. High Sign up bonuses for cards

   • Usually over 50,000 points, but can be as high as 150,000!

2. Some of the best rewards for travel related spend

   • 3x+ Points on Travel, No foreign Transaction Fees

3. Travel Perks

   • Airport Lounge Access, CLEAR Membership, TSA Precheck or Global Entry Credit

4. Transfer Partners

   • Unlock the most point value by transferring points directly from Credit card

   • Point redemptions are often more favorable when transferring points out vs. booking directly in your Credit Card Travel Tool.

   • I’ve got a full article on transfer partners here!

What Cards are Right for Me?

A simple question with a not so simple answer – It really depends on where and how you spend. For this next section – I’m going to primarily focus on which cards offer the best Travel Rewards and Transfer Partners. There are a ton of cards out there - and please sign up for my newsletter here as I’ll be posting and sending a ton of additional resources in this space in the coming months!

Still have questions? Contact me here or let’s chat on Twitter, Instagram or TikTok. I’m always happy to provide 1:1 advice, and have these discussions a lot via Twitter, in particular!

First, we’ll dive into the two categories of Cards in the Travel Trifecta, The Premium and the Mid-Range Rewards, and I will walk you through some of my most recommended cards, many of which are in my wallet, used regularly, and why.

Amex Platinum - Apply Now

Best for: Luxury Perks, Transfer Partners, Sign-up Bonus

Sign Up Bonus

First, I managed to score a coveted 150K sign up bonus when I signed up through this card via a referral link, which is just a crazy amount of points. More info in an article coming soon on all that I was able to book and do using the points from this sign up bonus alone.

Caveat to this deal: You can’t have an active card in the Amex Platinum and you need to use a referral link. Luckily for you - you can use my recommendation link. I believe this only works to get the double bonus if you do NOT have an active credit card in the Amex family yet.

Luxury Perks

The Amex Platinum has some of the best luxury perks available, and is a must have in your wallet if premium lounge access is important to you. The Platinum will get you access to most airport’s premium lounges, whether it's the Centurion, Delta, or one of the many which you can access with the highest level Priority pass granted by the Platinum Amex. While Delta has started to limit the number of uses in a year for lounge access (shame!) these lounge access not only provide quiet spaces, free drinks, and luxury amenities like showers and comfortable chairs, but you can save a ton on expensive airport dining with what’s included, something that can really add up for frequent travelers. (For example, the last time (I flew out of Newark my brother and I paid $60 for an omelet, a side and a bloody mary - which would have all been free in the lounge).

Transfer Partners

Amex has some of the best transfer partners in the game, and Amex points are incredibly valuable from a transfer standpoint.

Coupon Book

While the $695 annual fee for the Amex Platinum is no laughing matter, a joke frequently made about the Amex Platinum is that it’s a “coupon book”, one that, with careful dedication, pays for itself, but requires some time and reminders to leverage all of the perks.

Here are a few of the biggest perks that can help you quickly save the most to get the most value from the annual fee.

• $300 Equinox Credit

• $200 Hotel Credit (Fine Hotels & Resorts in Amex Travel Portal)

• $200 Walmart+ Complimentary Membership

• $200 Airline Credit (For one airline - for extras like food, bags)

• $20/Month Digital Entertainment Credit (Hulu, Disney+, New York Times, WSJ, etc.)

• $15/Month -Uber Credit

• $100 Global Entry Credit

• $100 total in Bi-Annual $50 Statement Credits at Saks

• Gold Elite Status with Marriott and Hilton

• Complimentary Elite Status with Avis, Hertz, National, & Enterprise

Chase Sapphire Reserve (BryGuides Pick)

Chase Sapphire Reserve - Apply Now!

Chase Sapphire Reserve - Best for Points on Everyday Urban Spending & Domestic Flight Redemptions

Chase, particularly the Sapphire Reserve, is an absolute BEAST for earning Points, particularly if you live in a city and spend a lot on travel, restaurants and bars. The card easily pays for itself. While the $550 Annual fee is steep, you immediately knock off $300 with a travel credit. Here are some additional perks that make the high annual fee worth it:

• 3x Points on Travel, Restaurants, Dining, & Bars

• $300 Travel Credit

• $200 Lyft Pink

• DoorDash Premium (no delivery fees) + $5. which eliminates all service fees for food delivery.

• No Foreign Transaction Fees

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is my primary card when booking and traveling internationally. While the Amex Platinum is an incredible card, it falls short when you’re outside of the US, as many vendors don’t accept it due to the higher fee. Additionally, Amex often does not provide ANY points on international spend – whereas Chase grants the 3x on travel and dining, even when charged outside of the US.

Chase also provides protection for Car Rental, Travel insurance, and more when you book with the card. Once, a rock cracked my rental car’s windshield, and Chase took care of everything. I just had to submit one form and they processed and took care of the entire claim for $0.

Where the Chase Sapphire Falls Short:

Certain Categories of everyday spending - The Chase Sapphire Reserve does not have as robust of transfer partners as Amex, which allows you to transfer points additional partners. While the 3x points are great, if you don’t spend a lot on travel, dining, etc. it’s not the best deal, and I recommend pairing it with another card that gets better rewards on some of this everyday spending.

Solution: The Chase Sapphire Reserve pairs really nicely with the Capital One Venture, where you get 2x on all purchases. This is the combination that I personally use for everyday spending. Another solid option if you’re in the Chase environment is the Freedom Unlimited, where you can at least get 1.5x on everyday purchases and then transfer your points into the Chase Sapphire for a better redemption value.

Mid-Range Travel Trifecta Credit Cards

Mid-Range Travel Trifecta Credit Cards Similarities

Capital One Venture - Apply Now

Capital One Venture: Best for Simplicity, Value, and earning points on all spend categories

The Capital One Venture was one of my first Travel Cards. After cashing in the sign up bonus, the card offers compelling value. I use it all the time for random purchases like groceries, pharmacies, medical bills, and shopping. The capital one shopping tools and extensions in particular are really strong features.

You won’t get quite the level of perks, point multipliers, or luxury items like lounge access, but these aren’t needed if you already have another premium card like the Amex Platinum or Chase Sapphire Reserve. Where The Capital one card Really shines is in it’s simplicity. It’s the same amount of points (2x) for all spending, so takes the thinking and mental work out of swiping and thinking about which card will get the most value.

The Venture X is the premium version of the Capital one Card, and should absolutely be considered as well, particularly if you value simplicity and want to just be able to put all of your purchases on one card, not think about the points, and still get the luxury benefits like lounge access, which the Venture does not have, but you get with the other Premium cards above.

The Case for Multiple Cards

As I mentioned above – I have all three of these cards in my wallet. While that might feel like a lot, especially if you’re just starting out, it’s quite advantageous to have cards across banks & platforms. Here’s a few reasons why:

1. Optimize spending across cards to get the most points per dollar spent

• Grocery spend on Amex Gold is 4x vs. only 1x on the Chase Sapphire

• Chase Sapphire spend on Restaurants is 3x.vs. only 2x on Capital one Venture

• Medical Bills are 2x on Capital one Venture vs. 1x on Amex Platinum

• Sales and transfer bonus will pop up throughout the year across different carriers, with as much as 30-50% additional point bonuses when you shift points during this time. It helps to have points across multiple financial institutions in order to maximize this benefits (more below!)

Alternate Configurations

Different card configurations will work for different people depending on their spending habits. This is not a one size fits all approach! Below are some alternate configurations

1. Amex Platinum + Chase Sapphire Preferred + Capital One Venture

   • Pro: Luxury perks from Amex, savings on fees vs. configuration above

   • Con: Fewer redemptions from Chase Tool (1.25x) vs. Reserve(1.5x), which are helpful when not transferring points for domestic flights

2. Amex Platinum + Amex Gold

   • Pro: You prefer to just stay in one Credit Card Infrastructure and consolidate points for higher rewards (i.e. Biz Class Upgrades)

   • Con: Not maximizing points and missing out on transfer partners or bonus on other carriers outside of Amex

3. Venture X + Chase Sapphire Preferred + Amex Gold

   • Pro: Good Strategy to Maximize points across categories and maintain coverage, while limiting annual fees

   • Con: Will miss out on some of the luxury perks of Amex Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve

What’s Missing — Specific Hotel and Airline Branded Cards

Overall, there are dozens of cards offered directly by airlines, hotels. There are so many potential options, which can certainly work best based on brand loyalty. These are very powerful tools if you have a lot of brand loyalty, and are looking for high perks or redemptions at certain airlines or properties. Below are some examples for types of users

• Example 1: You’re a consultant who travels frequently for work and loves to Stay at Hilton Hotels. You can maximize the points you receive by getting one of the many Hilton branded cards.

• Example 2: You live in Newark New Jersey, which is a Hub for United, and fly often back to Chicago to see family (also a United Hub). If you are flying one airline a ton, and value perks (i.e. access to the United Lounge) then this is an example when a branded card may be best for you.

“Premium Status” on Brands

Airlines and Hotels continue to complicate and change the rules required to get premium status, and usually not in favor of the consumer. For the average person who flies a few times per year and is not doing a ton of regular travel or business travel that requires certain routes, you are likely better off with the flexibility of the cards from the Trifecta rather than trying to get status , due to the often very high out of pocket spend minimums required to achieve status.

• More flexibility when booking

  • You’re not locked into one airline or hotel reward program

  • You’re able to choose the flight time or hotel location that works best or is cost/point optimized, not just the one in your status category

• Reduce complexity and tracking status, and forcing unnecessary money to be spent out of pocket

  • Causes unnecessary spend in order to maintain their status

  • Mileage runs can be time consuming and expensive

• You can get Status with certain brands by selecting the correct credit cards

  • Amex Platinum card will automatically quality you for Gold Status at Marriott and Hilton

Sign up Bonuses

Sign up bonuses are large, lump sums of points and miles that are used as an incentive to get consumers to sign up for credit cards. These bonuses usually have stipulations, such as a minimum spend over the first few months.

Let me be exceptionally clear - these sign up bonuses are one of the single largest drivers of value in the points and miles game, and optimizing and maximizing your sign up bonuses, with some as large as 100K points or more, can have dollar financial values of well over $1,000 in value, justby singing up and hitting the spend minimum.

Tips for Sign up bonuses:

• Make sure when you open a new card that you hit the minimum in order to get the points

• Space out opening of cards so that you don’t overextend yourself trying to hit a sign up bonus

• The best sign up bonuses can change month to month

So You’re ready to Open a credit Card!

What I tend to do is open a new card every few months, or once or twice a year if you’re just getting started. Opening too many at once will not only negatively impact your credit score, but make it much harder to hit the spending bonuses that most of the more premium cards have, which are one of the most powerful benefits and tools you can use to stockpile a ton of points in a relatively short time.

Make sure you’re being cognizant and hitting the spend minimum to get the point sign up bonus!

Now that you’re starting to accumulate points, the real value that Bryguides can add is in booking and transferring points directly. If you want to continue to educate yourself, I recommend next checking out the article “Fly For Free: How to Book to maximize your Points and Miles” will walk you through step by step how to go about transferring points out in a way that maximizes the point redemptions.

Plaease, don’t simply book through your credit card's travel tool! You’re wasting THOUSANDS of Points and dollars that you could leverage for your next trip or a premium business or first class upgrade to travel in style!

If this all sounds like too much education and effort, I’m here to help! The points hacking tool takes less than 5 minutes to fill out, and we’ll do the heavy lifting to optimize your points and travel experience. I’ve spent a ton of time doing this, know the routes, rewards, and transfer partners.Whether you want to keep reading and empower yourself to maximize these strategies or 5 minutes filling out the form and let us do the heavy lifting.

Points Hacking Tool

Be sure to stay up to date on changes, and follow my social media pages and newsletter where I’ll call out when signup bonuses change, transfer deals up.

One last time, here are the links to a handful of the Travel Trifecta Cards!